How the fate of interdisciplinary research discloses the ways in which universities have responded to REF in a way that breaches HEFCE regulations and, more importantly, how the REF has betrayed the very notion of the university. By Paolo Palladino.

Warwick UCU has conducted a survey of its members on selection procedures for the 2014 REF. The survey found that much good research has been excluded from the REF and that interdisciplinary research, in particular, has been sidelined.

UCU and the REF

UCU local branches and members in Higher Education have over a number of years voiced strong concerns about the Research Excellence Framework (REF), and its predecessor Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). UCU opposition to the REF has been reiterated in motions adopted by branch delegates at successive UCU Higher Education sector conferences since 2010.

The REF and RAE before it have been widely viewed as having a detrimental impact on the Higher Education sector and academic research in general and on staff in particular: increasing workload pressures, creating unreasonable performance expectations, limiting academic freedom and altering the way in which academics approach their research and publishing strategies for the worse.

ABOUT THIS SITE

This blog has been established as a forum to gather and exchange information on the impact of the REF on the HE sector and on academic staff, and the way REF selections practices have been implemented locally by HE institutions. It will also be an opportunity to discuss possible alternatives of the REF as well as critiques of it.

UCU members and individuals and organisations working in the HE sector and invited to contribute to the blog. HE staff are also invited to send comments on the way in which their institutions are handling the REF submission process (and can do so anonymously if preferred)